Move over, Rick Riordan: somebody else is getting into the kid books about demigods business. According to the Times of Israel, a Hebrew-language version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is underway:

In writer Shirley Graetz’s mind, the Akkadian figure who stars in the ancient poem “Epic of Gilgamesh” sounded a lot like her eldest son. Big, strong, and not always able to delicately avoid things in his path.

“I got to thinking about Gilgamesh,” said Graetz, who at the time was finishing up her PhD on cuneiform, an ancient form of writing from the Mesopotamian region. “He was half human, half god and he was a tyrant. Until he found his match, and then he calmed down and went on adventures.”

Graetz then went on to write a chapter book geared to children aged 8–11.

Best sentence in the article? This one:

Ever practical, the academic turned popular fiction writer also considered the fact that neither Disney nor Pixar had ever touched the story of the Mesopotamian figure.

I wonder if the bit with Shamhat might have something to do with that.

(H/T: PaleoJudaica)